Those were the days, my friend...

The final episode of "The Office," a longtime NBC hit comedy, included this paraphrased question - wouldn't it be nice if we actually knew we were living the good old days before we're out of them? Of course the answer is yes, but at least, for most of us, we can enjoy recollections of those "good old days."

The death of Jean Stapleton, star of "All in the Family," literally hit another note from "the good old days," as virtually every broadcaster aired the familiar theme song warbled by Jean and Carroll O'Connor. That popular television show was originally titled "Those were the Days," but quickly became "All in the Family," introducing viewers to Archie Bunker and his warped but hilarious (then) world of bigotry. 'Family' was a 70s comedy that made us laugh at the ugliness of prejudice, but it also opened with the vocal message referring to earlier times as "the good old days."

It's easy to embrace our memories of happy, bygone times, yet some will always be groaners and moaners, negative thinkers, who can't seem to take joy from realizing that it's much nicer to let our minds roam back through happy days. Some folks would rather resort to handwringing about days of agony, grief and despair that we've all had at one time or another. Basically, it's the glass-half-full people who conjure up the sunnier side of life - the ones who will always love the old days.

A few weeks ago, one of my husband's cousins discovered a web page devoted to Mt. Freedom, a then-small Morris County community in which the Rubenstein family clan shared summer visits at their grandparents' house many decades ago. Howard, the cousin who located the website, is a retiree now living in Florida. He happily hit his nostalgia button by accessing this page, and delighted in sharing detailed information about "the good old days" spent when the current crop of senior Rubensteins were teenagers. Although he has medical issues, he doesn't moan or groan and he finds fun in ferreting out old pictures and documents. That's really a case of a positive way to embrace shared history - remembering the good old days.

There is also a web page entitled "You know you're from Cedar Grove when..." Similar to the Mt. Freedom site, it's filled with photos and memories of 'the good old days' when Cedar Grove was relatively rural. Posts include anecdotes about former school teachers, the huge ice cream milkshake, called the Awful Awful, served at Bonds on Pompton Avenue. It also offers recollections about the heydays when Cedar Grove's Meadowbrook was a dance club drawing all of the big bands and top vocalists more than a half-century ago.

I'm sure many communities have similar sites. Most towns have web pages detailing their own information, history and statistics. Colleges, clubs and celebrities all have found their digital path to us. Digitally, we can locate former schoolmates, long-lost friends or begin new friendships. We can research our family trees or reach out in other ways to link us to "the good old days."

"The Office" has aired its final episode. "All in the Family" is no longer on our TV schedule. But memories remain and just like the old photos of Mt. Freedom and Cedar Grove, we can all find a smile looking back a bit at the "good old days"....we thought they'd never end...right?